BSW on the economy

The BSW wants public money to go to education, transport, energy supply and digitalization rather than to armaments. Small and medium-sized businesses are to be strengthened. In the party's view, arms do not create prosperity, and prosperity depends on peace.

The BSW wants to spend money differently. It should go to schools, roads, energy and the internet. Less money should go to weapons. Small and medium-sized companies should get more support.

The platform sets military spending against civilian investment. It names education, infrastructure, transport, energy supply and digitalization. Small and medium-sized firms are to be supported instead of arms interests. People who work should again be able to build a secure livelihood, the party says. The platform blames the state's condition on 23 years of CDU-led government.

The BSW wants to give arms companies no public money and to prevent civilian firms from switching to war production. A public fund is to pay for converting arms production to civilian manufacturing. Arms exports are to be controlled more strictly and the industry's windfall profits skimmed off.

Weapons companies should get no money from the state. Ordinary firms should not build weapons. A fund should help weapons firms switch to other products. The BSW wants to collect very high profits from weapons.

The party opposes the economy becoming a supplier to the arms industry. Arms companies should receive neither grants nor loans nor support programs. A publicly financed fund is planned for arms conversion, meaning the shift from military to civilian production. On top of that come tighter controls on weapons exports and a charge on the industry's unusually high profits.

A committee of inquiry is to examine the planned Intel plant. In the BSW's view, decisions were opaque and cost risks unclear; large projects should face stronger parliamentary oversight in the future.

The state parliament should look into the Intel project. The BSW says the decisions were not open enough. A great deal of money was involved. Parliament should check big projects more closely.

The program speaks of the "Intel complex" and sees it as an example of economic policy that ties up billions. The committee is to establish who was responsible. At the same time, the party commits to the state as an industrial location and calls for an active industrial policy.

The BSW wants to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to raise capital. Reserves and reinvested profits would get more favorable tax treatment, loans would be simpler to obtain, and investment would be encouraged through depreciation rules and funding programs.

Small and mid-sized companies often struggle to get money. The BSW wants to change that. Companies should pay less tax on profits they put back into the business. Loans should be easier and faster to get.

The program proposes tax advantages for reserves and lower taxes on profits kept in the business. Lending should become faster, simpler and more digital, and bank regulation should not put mid-sized firms at a disadvantage. Better depreciation options are planned for investments in energy efficiency, digitalization and modernized production equipment. Financing for business handovers should also become simpler and more transparent so that successions work out. The stated reasoning is that firms become less dependent on bank loans and that value creation stays in the region.

The BSW wants to give more support to business start-ups and reduce bureaucratic obstacles. Funding conditions for research and innovation should become simpler, more transparent and more reliable.

The BSW wants to help people who start a company. Applications should be simpler. There should be more advice. Companies should get easier access to knowledge and new technology.

The program points out that the number of full-time start-ups is falling and that successors must be found for more than 10,000 businesses by 2030. It calls for an active start-up culture with easily accessible advice, mentoring programs and social security for founders. In the program's view, funding structures are too complicated and poorly tailored to small and medium-sized firms, and venture capital is provided too rarely. Transfer centers and hands-on advisory services are meant to help bring products to market faster.

The BSW wants to preserve the chemical industry in Saxony-Anhalt and support its transformation. This includes attracting recycling companies to the chemical parks, affordable energy, faster permits and a secure supply of oil and gas.

Saxony-Anhalt has many chemical plants. The BSW wants to keep them. For that, energy should be cheap and permits should come faster. The plants should have a secure supply of oil and gas.

Companies focused on recycling are to settle in the existing chemical parks. The supply of oil and gas is to be reorganized; the program notes that the plants are designed for pipeline gas and certain types of oil. The ecological transformation is to be backed by public funding and state equity stakes. Retraining is planned especially for mining workers in the south of the state. Universities and companies should cooperate more closely in clusters, and mandatory internships should strengthen career orientation.

The BSW wants to keep the lithium deposits in the Altmark region under public control as a strategic resource. Profits should flow into the region through a public holding company, and extraction should be gentle on the environment and water.

There is a lot of lithium in the Altmark region. It is a raw material for batteries. The BSW wants the lithium to belong to the state. The profits should stay in the region. Extraction should protect water and soil.

Private and municipal companies may take part in open tenders in which ecological, social and regional criteria are decisive. As a method, the program names direct lithium extraction with closed water cycles, complete environmental monitoring and protection of groundwater. The aim is a value chain within the state, from extraction through processing to battery manufacturing. Binding agreements are meant to ensure that profits are reinvested in regional development. The population is to receive clear rights to have a say.

The BSW wants to bring core areas of essential public services back under public or cooperative ownership. The party rejects further privatization of municipal property.

The BSW wants important services back in public hands. These include water, energy, waste, housing, buses and trains. Private companies should not make a profit from them. Towns should stop selling their property.

The program names energy and water supply, waste disposal, local transit, housing and social facilities. In its view, these areas should not be run by profit-oriented private companies. The BSW regards returning them to municipal ownership as a key building block for letting municipalities shape their own affairs again.

The BSW wants tax relief for small and mid-sized businesses and an easier start for founders. Doctors and teachers are to receive incentives for settling in rural areas. According to the platform, the goal is to keep young people in the region.

The BSW wants to support small businesses in the state. They should pay less tax when they modernize. Doctors and teachers should get help when they move to rural areas. For example, when buying a house. Young people should stay in the state.

Tax breaks are planned for modernization and new equipment, along with help in training skilled workers. Doctors and teachers would get benefits when buying a home or equipping a first practice. Supervisory boards of large companies would have to account for it when East Germans are underrepresented. Training for young managers is also planned. In education, the BSW wants to draw on longer shared schooling and company partnerships as practiced in East Germany. Sustainable farming is to be supported as well.